Quantum Computers Presentation

Editor's Notes

• #2: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining me today on a journey past the limitations of present computers, into a world where researchers are inventing a machine, the quantum computer, that will be capable of solving problems never thought possible with current computation methods.
• #3: But before we explore this device, let us dangle our feet off the edge of what we ARE capable of today. We use classical computers to simulate the world around us, send and receive information, and much more. Yet, classical computers struggle in searching through large quantities of data, factorizing large numbers, and solving vast matrices of multivariable equations. Luckily, in 1994, an mit mathematician by the name Peter Shor proved that a quantum computer would be able to solve these problems quickly and efficiently. So we know what quantum computers are capable of, but how are they physically different than classical computers. Well, where a classical computer uses the existence of charge to symbolize 0’s and 1’, quantum computers use entire atoms. But atoms are a bit more difficult to deal with than simple electrons.
• #4: Atom are more sensitive to the world around them, so the Quantum Computing group here at mit have constructed something called the Paul Ion Trap which isolates single atoms in a chamber of very low pressure and temperature. This chamber also keeps that atom hovering in mid air through the use of radio antennas similar to the ones found on radio towers.
• #5: But they’ve been facing a problem. Sometimes the radio waves would change slightly, knocking the atom off balance and flinging it into the walls of the chamber. So during my sophomore year at mit, I joined the group to help them in this problem. To solve this problem, I used a sensor inside the chamber to detect the frequency of the radio wave, converted that analog signal to a digital signal any computer could understand. I then wrote a bit of code to see if the radio waves in the chamber were at the desired frequency. If they were not, the computer would send a command through another converter to the antennas in the chamber. And vwala, a stable atom, isolated from the world, levitating in mid air. This is now a working quantum bit.
• #6: In the coming decades researchers hope to group these quantum bits together to create a working quantum computer, and usher in a new age of computation. Able to tackle the problems previously thought impossible.
• #7: With this collection of stable atoms, aka a quantum computer, we are able to: Factorize large numbers much faster than classical computers. Solve equations faster than classical computers, and even solve equations that cannot currently be solved by classical computers. Design new drugs by studying the stable atoms in the computer, and how they evolve to test the making of new drugs. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining me today on a journey through the coming quantum revolution, that will allow us to solve problems never thought possible with current computation methods.